Campaign

Christie hits Trump on foreign policy: ‘I don’t want to be the apple of Vladimir Putin’s eye’

by Miranda Nazzaro - 08/19/23 1:58 PM ET

Republican Presidential candidate former, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a gathering, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Manchester, N.H. Christie filed paperwork Tuesday formally launching his bid for the Republican nomination for president after casting himself as the only candidate willing to directly take on former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie hit against former President Trump’s comments about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s after the former president claimed he was the “apple of his eye.”

“Just yesterday, Donald Trump [said] he was the apple of Putin’s eye,” Christie said Saturday in an interview with conservative radio host Erick Erickson at an event in Atlanta. “I have to tell you the truth, I don’t want to be the apple of Vladimir Putin’s eye.”

Christie, also the former governor of New Jersey, was referring to Trump’s remarks during an interview on Fox Business where the former president claimed Putin “would have never gone into Ukraine” if Trump was president, pointing to his seemingly positive relationship with Russian president.

“The Christie administration would stand up for our friends around the world and work with them,” he said. “We would expect friendship in return, but those are big things, consequential things.”

Earlier this month, Christie made a surprise visit to Ukraine and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, solidifying his support of continued U.S. aid to the embattled country. Unlike some of his GOP counterparts, he has vowed to expand the nation’s aid to Ukraine if elected president.

The former governor, who ran unsuccessfully against Trump in 2016 and has emerged this cycle one of the former president’s most outspoken critics, said Saturday that the U.S. Navy is “most desperately underprepared,” and lacks the number of necessary modernized ships and submarines.

“Since [former President] Barack Obama, we have allowed that submarine force to deteriorate,” Christie said. “We need to reinvest in it because now, we’re not looking at a land war in Russia. The Russian army has shown their inability to beat Ukraine, I don’t think they’re looking to pick a fight with us tomorrow. It’s China.”

Christie also argued that the deployment of submarines in the South China Sea will serve as an “effective deterrent to Chinese aggression.”

“If we let the Chinese do that kind of domination game, because we’re unprepared or unwilling, to deter them, then they will not stop there,” Christie said, while also calling for the modernization of the U.S. Air Force.